


Conversation Starters - shorts

by Leni



Series: Conversation Starters [1]
Category: Multi-Fandom
Genre: Prompt Fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-03
Updated: 2016-09-21
Packaged: 2018-08-12 17:56:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 1,349
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7943860
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Leni/pseuds/Leni
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Several fandoms. All stories under 300 words. Enjoy!</p><p>1. <b><a href="http://archiveofourown.org/works/7943860/chapters/18160303">BtVS</a></b> - Buffy/Angel<br/>2. <b><a href="http://archiveofourown.org/works/7943860/chapters/18160318">AtLA</a></b> - Zuko & Toph<br/>3. <b><a href="http://archiveofourown.org/works/7943860/chapters/18160336">Chronicles of Narnia</a></b> - Susan Pevensie<br/>4. <b><a href="http://archiveofourown.org/works/7943860/chapters/18160549">Veronica Mars</a></b> - Logan<br/>5. <b><a href="http://archiveofourown.org/works/7943860/chapters/18160636">Castle</a></b> - Castle/Beckett</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. BtVs - Buffy/Angel

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Set in the Boston Dawning 'verse.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 001\. ❝i think about it every day and every night.❞

They stared at each other, each of them looking for a reaction and both unwilling to be the first to admit that the last five minutes had changed everything between them again.

Angel's eyes strayed to her lips before he gave a sigh. "Maybe we shouldn't have...."

Buffy nodded. "Definitely. Bad Buffy. Bad Angel. Bad kissing!"

"...exactly."

But neither of them stepped away.

She sighed. Fidgeted with the collar of his shirt. Tried a nonchalant tone. "Have you... been thinking about it?"

He chuckled. "Haven't you?"

There was no point in lying. Not now. "Only every day and every night."

 

The End  
01/09/16


	2. Avatar TLA. Toph & Zuko

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 002\. ❝i.. i can’t stay..❞

He had avoided the Avatar's notice, and both Water tribe teens were still snug in their bedrolls when he slipped by them. He should have known that the one who would catch him would be the blind earthbender.

"Well, Sparky. Finally got sick of Katara's cooking?"

"...Toph."

Toph smirked, leaning back on a boulder, and her focus on him so evident that in the darkness of night it was impossible to tell that her pupils were milky-white and sightless. "You really planned to get away, after all the trouble you had joining us?"

Zuko sighed. "I..." _I can't stay_. But that was an old truth, so he tried again. "I don't belong here."

"Lie," Toph declared, crossing her arms over her chest. "Try again."

In shock, he stared at the younger girl. "I'm not lying!"

"Yeah, well. Believing something? Doesn't make it truth." She gave a shrug. "You should start paying attention around you, if you really think Aang, and the water siblings, and I belong together." An amused snort escaped her, as if the notion alone struck her as funny. "But we have a common goal," she continued in a more serious tone, "and we've learned to get along. You want to help Aang, so you got the first downpat. Now get on working on the second, and just a hint? Running away won't help."

_Running away never helped at all._

The truth forced a sigh out of him. Half hope, that he didn't have to travel alone, and half dread, because he really didn't yet fit in the mechanics of the Avatar's group. "Fine," he said at last, turning on his hells back toward their camp.

He didn't see Toph exhale in relief before she straightened and followed him.

 

The End  
01/09/16


	3. Veronica Mars - Logan Echolls (s1)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 005\. ❝please, don’t go. don’t leave me.❞

His mother is dead.

Logan lets that thought sink in (sink deep underwater, down to the riverbed). He knows he looks like a fool, his cool-boy airs floating in the air while he remembers how to breathe.

His mother is dead.

He has clung to hope, and of course there's none. (He clings to mommy, and now she's gone). How much of a child must he still be, to believe in miracles and fairytales? The knight is too broken and terrified, the dragon gloats over all, and nobody remembered to rescue the princess from her tower.

(Is that why she jumped off?)

"Logan!"

He tears his gaze down to the girl calling his name. Veronica. Veronica is here. Veronica, who knows he's more than a cocky bastard. Veronica, who's helped him even when she hates his guts.

He trusted her once.

Maybe that's why he allows himself to crumble before her.

It's ugly. He clings. He sobs. 

( _Please, don't go,_ crosses his mind.)

He thought he'd grieved for Lily. How stupid, to believe it couldn't get worse!

(and, _don't leave me!_ )

But he won't say the words. Experience has proved that begging never works for long.

Still, Veronica stays.

It's not enough, not compared to what he's lost, but even a stupid boy knows it's better than being left alone.

 

The End  
01/09/16


	4. Chronicles of Narnia - Susan Pevensie

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 003\. ❝what did you just call me?❞

Those two little words should have gone unnoticed, just more sweet nonsense from a boy flirting with her. But their sound froze her in place and, slowly, with the burden of so many years lived and erased, and erased again when she forced them among her childhood memories, Susan turned to Gerald. "What did you just call me?"

Gerald's smile slipped, and he blinked in confusion at her sudden coldness. "Eh... Your Majesty? Because, you know, you look spectacular tonight." His eyes traveled down her figure appreciatively. "Like a que--"

Susan raised a hand, effectively silencing him. (It was a queenly gesture, though he didn't know that and she'd never tell him.) "Just don't. Okay?"

Slowly, Gerald nodded.

He'd heard the rumors. How odd Susan Pevensie was. She had reason, of course, but not more than so many others who'd lost kin (though at least War had a name and a reason. An overturned train wagon was just senseless). "Sorry," he said, "Let's try again?"

Warily, Susan met his eyes, then nodded. "Just... call me Susan, okay?"

Gerald smiled. "I can do that."

 

The End  
01/09/16


	5. Castle - Castle(Beckett

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 007\. ❝frankly, my dear, i don’t give a damn❞

Kate gave her husband an appreciative gaze. Castle always looked well in a suit, but for Halloween he usually gave in to his more childish impulses and showed up in outlandish costumes, each more ridiculous than the last (though the space cowboy outfit was still a strong contender for first prize, really). "My, aren't we dapper tonight," she said, admiring the cut of his coat.

Women in the 19th century hadn't had it too bad.

Castle grinned, standing straighter and giving a courteous bow of welcome. "My pet."

Kate wrinkled her nose at the nickname. "'Pet', seriously?"

His eyes crinkled in laughter. "Just getting into character." He gave her an entreating glance. "Come on, play along?"

"Your character needs a kick where it hurts," she grumbled, but since it was Halloween and taking a different role was expected, she smiled (not very nicely, if the expression of Castle's face was an indication) and made a show of batting her eyelashes (because wasn't that what all the heroines in period movies seemed to do?) "Good evening, kind sir," she forced a titter at the end of that, and watched Castle bite back a laugh.

"Such a lovely creature," he gushed, taking her hand and raising it to his lips in a gallant move. "And might I say that those curtains look quite fetching on you?"

That clued her in. She'd never been a fan of the movie, but since Castle wouldn't expect her to use one of those wide-skirted dresses, she could deal with his stranger literary tastes for one night. "Why, I'm married, sir!"

Castle grinned, eyes dancing with mischief. "Frankly, my dear-" He ignored her groan at his use of the famous phrase. "-I don't give a damn."

 

The End  
02/09/16


	6. Hunger Games - Katniss Everdeen

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: ❝you’re the best part of me.❞

Prim is rosy-cheeked and whole, so Katniss immediately knows it's a dream. When her little sister looks up, that sad expression on her face, and shakes her head, Katniss also knows what has changed that would move Prim's ghost to visit her.

"It should have stopped," the memory of Prim says.

Katniss thinks of the new Games being set up. The vote she gave in favor for their organization. "It had to happen, Prim. It's fair." When Prim's expression doesn't change, except perhaps to pity her for the lies she tells herself, Katniss looks away. "They watched us kill each other for years. They would have killed us all. _They killed you_." And this is the truest thing she knows: "I want them to suffer."

"I didn't," Prim whispers.

Katniss has to smile, because that is exactly what her little sister would have said. "I know," she confesses. "I know because you're the best part of me, Prim." She reached out to stroke her sister's cheek, but not even in dreams can one touch the dead. Instead she curls her hand into a fist, feeling the impotence of being unable to save the one she loved most. "But you went away."

"You're better than this."

Katniss shakes her head. The deaths that will come, these other children who will die and lose their souls before the camera... It won't bring Prim back, but it will avenge her. "No, sis. I'm not."


End file.
